Category: Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood

Great to see this series back again, especially after that cliff-hanger after the previous episode. Like most people expected, it was set in stage. I really like how Ed and Al are gradually gathering more and more allies in their fight against father. With things like these, there are plenty of people who would oppose his ideals, and the challenge is to unite them without causing suspicion, and that’s what this episode did really well.

A for Kimbley, he got a much better role than in the first series. In the first, he never really served a purpose. And even though most of his actions have failed in Brotherhood, he still has this air of danger around him, rather than devolving into that deranged homicidal maniac. At this point he still has the potential to screw all of Ed’s plans up.

And also, in this episode something happens that gives a complete new twist to Al’s story: for some reason, without ever initiating it, he walks through a very cold environment and suddenly sees his real body at the end of the gate. This is about the first time that the gate appears to someone who hasn’t called it, and it was more like an illusion anyway. What was behind it?

Speaking of which… that gate may have a completely different meaning in this series. At the end of this episode, we see Father list Ed and Al among Hohenheim and probably even Izumi. Could he have some sort of plan that involves people who have seen the gates? Does this also involve his plans of blowing up the country? And more importantly: who is going to be that fifth person to see the gates? Apparently, homunculi don’t count, even those who were human once.

Also, the new OP and ED are pretty good. Probably the best of Brotherhood so far, however there are nasty spoilers in them about Pride. If someone who’s behind were to watch them, he’d be totally spoiled about their identity. My question therefore is to the people who post them on sites as YouTube, etc, to include some sort of spoiler-warning.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Well, so next week there’s unfortunately going to be a hiatus, but as if to make up for it the creators tried extra hard this episode. The direction was really among the best we’ve seen from this show in a long while, which made for a really entertaining episode.

I like how the creators decided to tell Yoki’s story through a quick flashback. It allowed them to rush through a story that wasn’t really that good or important, and yet it finally explained where this guy came from. Very clever. This also brings up hope that the creators are saving the Ishbal background for later. In any case, that flashback scene was utterly hilarious. In fact, nearly all the facial expressions of Ed were brilliant, and Al also had his moments of greatness.

And I admit. Twenty episodes ago I rather disliked Winry and her uselessness, but at least it built up her character for this episode very nicely, and this episode used it very nicely in her development. And sure, at the end she just got kidnapped again, but something tells me that she’s not going to be a damsel in distress in the next episode. I mean, Scar kills a lot, but Winry’s parents were the only ones he killed without a reason. Let’s see him make up for that in that next episode.

Then, the Chimera. It shows that Father has been working on them for quite a while. which begs the question: what about Shou Tucker? Why was he special for making a chimera that understood words? Why did he become a state alchemist for it even though Father could achieve much more? Or was this simply used as a cover? Something like “making chimeras is very hard, so don’t bother with it”.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Whoa! Shadow! Spoilers ahead! Do not read if you didn’t watch this episode yet!

I was already told that Pride’s identity would be the biggest spoiler of the series, that we’ve already seen his human form. Because of that, I occasionally imagined who the hell he could be, but who it eventually turned out to be… I never considered that option. I really thought that it was going to be some sort of obscure adult.

There still are a lot of questions remained about why the son of Bradley of all people turned out to be Pride. Out of all the disguises, that has to be one of hardest to keep up. The people around him (maids, et cetera) should all be aware that something is wrong with a kid after a few years. I especially wonder how long Pride has been playing for Bradley’s son anyway: if he doesn’t age, then there are bound to be people who find it strange what’s happening to this kid, and why he refuses to grow up.

One theory is that he can take up multiple forms, and only recently decided to play for Wrath’s son, because Father’s plan is about to come to fruition. In this episode we’re shown that Kimbley wasn’t just set out to catch Scar, but also to instigate the final massacre at Briggs. And finally I’ve gotten my respect for Winry: she finally ends up doing something relevant, and I admire her courage in this episode despite finding out that she’s basically a hostage.

With this, I can see the big lines of the plot that’s currently still left: protect Briggs, go after Father, and in the meantime provide adequate background for all of the important characters. Sounds promising!
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Whoa, this really was one of the best FMA episodes we’ve seen for quite a while now. It’s great to see this series fired up again. There were a lot of great things that happened in this episode.

First of all: Hohenheim’s background. We learn that he put forth that scary look of his on purpose. It’s interesting that he didn’t realize what kind of effect this would have on Ed. Why he did that, I’m not yet sure, but I think it’s pretty obvious right now that he holds some sort of Philosopher’s stone. In fact, I believe it to be created from those children we saw him with during the recap episode. What’s also interesting is that he actually discovered Father’s plans, while Ed was spying on him, thinking that he was just busy with another one of his experiments. But there’s still so much about this guy that still needs to be revealed, though. I’d love to see an episode dedicated to when he met his um… wife. (Did they ever get properly married anyway?)

The part where Olivia killed off Raven was also really well delivered, it’s amazing how good of an actor Olivia turned out to be, although it’s a bit of a shame that they had to resurrect Sloth in order to get the right information out of him, but at least she now has confirmed that the military is up to something huge.

Also, Wrath is getting more and more scarier in the way that he keeps using Winry as a hostage, when he actually invites her to Briggs in this episode, as his way of saying “don’t try anything stupid”. I must say, that even though I disliked her at first, this is a very plausible reason for her to get involved with the main plot. Instead of the first series in any case, in which she just… appeared and never really left for God knows which reason?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Quite out of the blue, this episode comes and delivers answers to some of the more burning questions that the early episodes have asked. I was prepared for the worst in terms of this show, but damn. It still amazed me to what extend this series is willing to go.

Being epic is of course easy to do: just create some sort of deus ex machina bomb that has the power to destroy the world and voila: you’ve involved the entire world in your story. Making it count is of course an entirely different story. This episode finally revealed what the homunculi were doing in Lior, and why Hughes had to die, among others. I at first thought that they were simply trying to make as many philosopher’s stones as possible, but these people are actually turning the entire COUNTRY into a transmutation circle! Bloody hell.

To think that Father didn’t take over a country in order to create his plans. He instead created a country, in order to carry them out. This explains the country’s round shape, why the capital is right in the middle of it and much more. The next big question is of course going to be: why? What could this guy possibly want even more? He possesses eternal life, is the most powerful man in the entire country, nobody can harm him in any way in the way this is going. What could he possibly want so badly that he’d create a 500-year long plan that involves so much preparation and such a hassle to carry out?

And where does Hohenheim fit into this, really? He must have had something to do with it, but what? My speculation at this point is that Hohenheim is indeed an immortal, and created Father as some sort of clone of his, which then got a mind of its own and then started that incredibly elaborate plan of his.

It’s also interesting how this episode explained the first episode as well. Wasn’t that supposed to be a filler? Interesting choice, especially considering the lack of original material in the rest of this series.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

I wonder, after seeing Ed pay with a coin in this episode: how does money work in the Full Metal Alchemist universe? I mean, any alchemist could just gather some copper and nickel and make a fortune.

Anyway, this episode mostly consisted out of building up, although that introduction scene of Sloth rocked. The guy is pretty stereotypical (at least the “sloth” of the first season was a bit of a creative take on this trope), but the action scene was as good as usual. Heck, Sloth might be even tougher than Greed, who is supposed to be the strongest shield.

My guess would be that either Sloth or Gluttony was the first homunculus to be created. From the homunculi whose backstory we already know by now, you can see somewhat of a pattern, in which father experiments with various techniques to create homunculi, so naturally this would mean that his creations would keep getting better and better (see Wrath, who does stand out as the most skilled and emotionally stable homunculus so far). Gluttony and Sloth look like early prototypes: they have interesting powers, but tend to be too stupid or lazy to really be left on their own.

I do wonder, though. Father’s plan has always been one of secrecy, and silencing those who know about the alchemists. Why then does he send Sloth on such a mission, in which he’s bound to attract attention to himself. I mean, if he was looking for someone or something, he could have easily used Envy to infiltrate the base.

This episode was very much about getting Olivier to trust Ed and Al, which is of course a bit tricky considering how they can’t tell her exactly what they’re after, due to Winry. Still, I think she got the message at the end. The creators did well in portraying her as a hard-to-impress character.
Rating: * (Good)

Haha! I knew it! Even though the creators may have been trying to not show Marcoh’s new face for a while, they still were trying too hard in the way that absolutely nothing of his face was shown. Not even hints. Besides, the total absence of Mai Chang also showed that the hooded guy that travelled with Scar was one big decoy; otherwise there was no reason for him to split up with Mai Chang and the moustache guy.

Nevertheless though, that fight between Scar and Kimbley kicked ass. While not the deepest character, Kimbley has this air around him that makes him fun to watch. He’s definitely a big change from the first season. It’s one thing that he was a purely evil maniac back there, but the absolutely pathetic way the creators used him in the final parts of the series really made him into one my least favourite characters of the first series.

It’s also interesting that the creators actually paid attention to the effects of heat and cold on metal in this episode. It seems that the winter has arrived, and on top of that Ed and Al have travelled to a high and cold mountain range in the middle of a blizzard. And his automail actually causes him troubles. The strange thing however, is that alchemy suddenly also stopped working. Seeing the nature of alchemy and Rentanjutsu, could it be that something exists that only allows alchemy to be used in certain places? Like, rentanjutsu is the alchemy that’s used throughout the world, but someone created renkinjutsu, which only can be used inside the country.

Armstrong’s older sister is also quite different from what I imagined. While Armstrong always had something comical about him, his sister is dead serious. Or at least, at first sight. And yet, she seems to be even more dangerous than he is.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ah, thankfully the inconsistent animation of the previous episode was just a one-of-a-kind thing. This episode made up for it with pretty nice animation and a number of very creative shots and camera-angles (you especially have to love the Armstrong-scene in this episode).

Anyway, there’s lots of interesting stuff going on in this episode that introduces even more side-plots. We finally get our fist glimpse of the strange blond-haired woman we’ve been seeing in the OP. She’s the head of the Armstrong family. One particular filler episode from the first season suddenly gets an entirely different dimension. ^^;

Kimbley also waste no time to go after Scar, although his subordinates desperately need a lesson in the art of ambushing (seriously, did they really think that it was a good idea to corner Scar, a man who is known to fight back, on a bridge, from two sides? It’s like saying; “go ahead; escape. We’ll just shoot ourselves.”). The creators are also hinting a bit too much that Scar is travelling with that moustached guy that’s been hanging around him. they’re trying way too hard to hide his face.

In the meantime, Ed and Al also meet Bradley’s son and Grumman has taken up cross-dressing. A very eventful episode overall, I’d say.
Rating: * (Good)

The animation in this episode felt a bit off fro usual. Especially in the first half, the charactr’s expressions lacked sould and detail, it seems. This is especially strange considering we just had a recap a few weeks ago. My guess is that something went wrong with the outsourcing this time, because the characters’ expressions looked stiff and forced.

Anyway, as for this episode: i don’t understand why people were complaining about the lack of development for Knox during the previous episode: he actually got some attention in this episode. We see some of his past apprentices, what has become of them and we got to see a glimpse of the work he did in the past. To me, this seems like the creators have decided rearrange a bunch of chapters. Have some faith, will you?

In any case, this was clearly a build-up episode so there’s not a lot to say about it, other than that we finally get the proper introduction of Kimbley. thankfully he seems less stereotypically evil, although the scene between him and Envy was a bit too much of a contest to see who could create the biggest evil grin (like I said: the facial expressions in this episode were just OFF).
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Okay, as requested: an entry about the recently released OVA of Full Metal Alchemist called the Blind Alchemist. It’s going to be a short entry because it’s a pretty straightforward episode, but it’s interesting to mention it nonetheless.

So basically Ed and Al meet an alchemist who is supposed to have successfully performed a human transmutation. It turns out that he also failed to perform one, lost his eyes, and ever since his family has been deceiving him by using a fake girl from some orphanage. It’s an interesting story without a conclusion, though it doesn’t really need one. The family will most likely happily live together until either the alchemist dies, or something else of that magnitude.

What’s interesting about this story is that it comes from the time in which Ed and Al still believed that human transmutation really brought back the dead. Ever since we learned that it didn’t, but the interesting thing here is that the transmuted person was actually kept alive. My guess is that there is some poor soul caught in that body, unable to do anything. It’s her who I feel sorry for the most.
Rating: * (Good)